Ripped Off in Poland? - Expose here:

Hotels and airports mainly, i was impressed. But then again i had just come from Poland so it may have flattered me a tad.

swiss..estonian..british..i wonder who you will be next time.troll

I use my user name and others in the household use theirs.
So whats your problem ???

Maybe I should group all the user names from this household together, so members can tell that they are from one household?

It would sort out confusion.

Please do. Hes probably got around 30 members of his household.


yeh yeh yeh, BS

Please do, might finally sort out the spamming troll once and for all.

dead on!

Each individual is entitled to their own opinion.
Are you discriminating against people that cannot afford to own a personal pc/laptop ??
Am I to ban family and friends from sharing ??

You obviously have assumed that one person is using multiple user names. How wrong can you be ??
So like I said before, whats your problem ?? Democracy ? Freedom of speech ?

Carry on and group together whatever you like. No problem to me.

To post anonymously, please enter a temporary and unique username (without password).
Your rules, ........ correct ??

Fair enough but remember, if one from the group (last count 4) gets suspended or banned then everyone from that group will be suspended/banned also.

I am not fascinated with your country honey...I am trying to keep other expats from making the same mistake and showing them someone understands their frustration. I know I appreciated it when others did that for me ;)

Living there was miserable yes. Horrid weather, horrid service, horrid bureaucracy, poor attitudes from everyone about everything, arrogance and never taking responsibility for things, constant complaining about how everyone else sucks and how great Poland is...it is enough to wear anyone down. I stuck it out for a long time but thankfully now I am free. I do miss some things and people for sure...but overall if I could rewind the clock to before I ever set foot in that miserable place I would do it in an instant :))

did you speak the lingo?

When I had to. I never liked Polish. Didn't taste right in my mouth (if nobody makes a BJ joke there I will be horribly disappointed) if you know what I mean? But it's not the only language I feel that way about before the "oh we are so persecuted" crowd jumps in.

My dislike stemmed from ingrained cultural attitudes not language issues. One could speak Polish better than a native and it wouldn't change the things that put me off about the place.

Surely you wrote that with the older generation in mind, beelzebub. Did you really find younger Poles to be all those bad things for the most part? Poor attitudes? Other than arrogance, what else?

Absence of personal responsibility for mistakes, errors etc. No concept of customer service and even confrontational and rude attitudes in retail. Constant bragging about how much better Polish this and Polish that is...usually connected to them bringing up education in the US (though they have never been there).

And yes these attitudes are prevalent in the current generation. I got to where I didn't want to shop at all because between the ridiculous prices, horrid service, constant problems if you have a defective item or need warranty service etc.

Absence of personal responsibility? It'd be interesting to hear some examples as I think I know exactly what you are talking about. I remember having to wait for a staff member to come and open the door so I could get in and prepare. She strolled across the market square as if she was on holiday and casually walked up the stairs. When I got in, I put the kettle on and started to photocopy my notes. The problem was that she arrived one minute before my class was due to start. I was frantically getting the notes together and it was already 3 or 4 mins into the class, thanks to her. I hung around as the sheets were getting photocopied and kept looking across at her for an apology. Nothing! Then I went and started putting the sheets in order whilst sipping at my coffee. I was doing it fairly quickly and she even had the feckin gall to tell my boss that I was just cruising as if I had had my feet up.

What's more is that it has happened 4 times and never was there an apology. The same was with my other school. Rather than risk losing my temper, I got my wife in to sort them out for lying and pretending that they hadn't said certain things. She really gave it some and the school backed off.

I call a lot of people here 'the never wrongs'. I've seen it in so many offices too but I think I've made my point.

Although I guess that I prefer to see the positive sides of life here more than you do (I don't like presumptions generally), I know what you are saying. When they say goodbye it's like they are saying feck off. I just get what I need and go and to hell with their grumpy crap. The females tend to be much worse. Pent up and stuck up little princesses. I can't think of a female who has smiled when serving me.

Where I'm from, Scotland, we have our problems with customer service in places but the level is noticeably higher. More so in Edinburgh I'd say. Scots are proud but if I am to be fair, I really heard very little bragging in my 24 years there. It hit me immediately here how they assume that Polish food and beer is automatically better. The thing is that I have travelled to 21 countries in the last 8 years and it has been my priority to sample beer in all those countries (I don't drink that much, just taste them). Although I like Polish beer, it is not in the top 10 of the 35 or so countries I have tried beer in. I say 35 as I have obviously tried beer in countries I haven't been to (Belgian, Singaporean, Chinese etc etc). When I tell Poles that, they are visibly displeased but it's just preference. I prefer the Japanese look, for example, and they can't accept that either. It really struck me initially but now I just shrug.

Oh yes, and somehow they believe that doors are held open. My confidence was restored as one actually did but 9 times out of 10 they don't. At least here anyway.

I can give you lots of examples. The one that made things the most difficult for me was involving an immigration official. It nearly resulted in me being deported and caused a lot of stress and hassle. It cost me money that I was unable to recover as well.

In a nutshell some of my documents were "lost" on an official's desk as he went on holiday for a few months. After much effort on my part I was able to get the documents sent to me several months late and to make it worse they made an error and also BACKDATED the envelope to cover their own arse. They were too stupid to backdate the letter however so when it all washed out they couldn't explain it in any satisfactory way. But of course nobody would do anything about it...they were not punished. I was finally given my documents and told I should just shut up and be happy I got them. I had to travel in the middle of this and had a major problem at the border that caused me to miss my flight and cost me a LOT in rearrangments. None of which I was able to recover.

I know what you mean. My friend went through the same but he got a lawyer and it turns out that they had no right to threaten him in that way. He also exposed other illegalities that I won't go into.

They are also blissfully unaware of their EU obligation to furnish you with a copy in 2 languages. I had all this bumff in Polish and I didn't understand all of the technical language. Perhaps I would now but that doesn't change the fact that they are duty bound to provide you with an English version so that you have no excuse and have to comply.

My accountant also stuffed things up, twice on the same matter and thanks to my sterling wife, a Pole herself, salvaged the situation. Otherwise, I would've had to chat to the hard-nosed folk in the tax office. They need to get off their high horses and acknowledge that Poland has benefitted from the EU and that Poland is now more open to foreigners. The thing is, they are lifers in such offices and don't give a jot that other Poles abroad are doing better for themselves. Their attitude is irritating but I have had some positive experiences so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I tried to go at them with a lawyer but one I trusted said it wasn't worth it and the cost was going to be prohibitive. A few others would have happily taken my money to try though. At that point I had my documents and was tired of spending money. On the border issue luckily I had my file with me and was able to show them I had followed all the rules and the error was on the side of the office...but it took a long time and arguing with several people before I could even get someone to listen. It cost me a LOT of money in rebooking and accomodations because I missed the flight.

This is only one of several bouts of incompetence and downright criminal behavior I experienced over the years. But like in most places it is more expensive to fight it often than to just take the hit.

Interesting about the requirement to provide it in 2 languages though in my cases it wouldn't have mattered. But I noticed in retrospect they never offered.

That's the biggest problem, money. Lawyers should not be allowed to take so much as it is almost always the case that one side caused the problems at the expense of the person that seeks out the lawyer. Sometimes both are but....

Criminal behaviour??

Yes it's criminal to forge the dates on things to make it look like you sent/prepared it earlier especially when you are obligated by law to respond in a certain amount of time.

One side or the other is lying. Sometimes it's the post office and sometimes the authority like ZUS. I refuse to believe that a letter takes 9 days to get to me, sometimes more, from the neighbouring city.

Right. I have gotten several "official" documents with wonky dates from within Warsaw. I have had issues with it as well when they say I didn't respond in the alotted time.

What do you mean?


Listen, you didn't like it, fair enough.
Poland is hard place to live even for the natives, I would say that even more than for foreigners!
Administration and law is a joke, people in the offices have a wrong attitude, and so ....there is for a reason and don't give me that excuse for an argument - that Poland is not communist for 20 years.

Saying all that I must add that your generalizations are just that, crappy and unfair generalizations. People are just people and in any given country you can find full spectrum of all human characters and behaviors.

So, I would appreciate very much if you withhold those useless generalizations and concentrate on real issues.

I mean that they have been able to find work abroad and make a better life for themselves. This was my main focus.

What generalisations was she making, Ironside?

These are very real issues whether you like them or not. They affected my life and cost me money so that's pretty real. I know many others such things have happened to as well.

You cannot pretend the bad parts don't exist. You can try but that's why I post...to tell the other side...the side that's not biased by stupid national pride.

I am a he by the way...I must have skimmed over the profile selections and I thought I had corrected it.

I agree with her, Ironside. Many Poles just don't like to hear it but you admitted it yourself. She lost money and that's hardly fair given that, on the face of it, she didn't create the problems.

Guess I will have to go ahead with the sex change surgery ;)

There should be a way for you to report them and get your money back you would think.

Not in all cases. I don't know if it's the same for all provinces, but here, if I want to get the EKUZ card, I simply visit the relevant office with proof that I paid ZUS this month (a print out does nicely) and voila, the card is produced on the spot. Compare this to the UK, where you have to wait weeks for the same thing.

Or we could talk about the instant access to many bureaucrats - this just doesn't happen in the UK.

Or what about the way that the tax office in Poland will take responsibility and will issue you with a formal decision on an issue that is legally binding? It's certainly not like that in the UK - in fact, the UK system is such that you can be issued with formal guidance, only for a tax inspector to rule that you (and the guidance) were wrong and that they are right.

Or we could talk about the way that you can actually deal with someone face to face with residency issues. In the UK? Forget it.

I think many people in Poland don't seem to realise how accessible their bureaucracy actually is, compared to the system in the UK. Even the unemployment situation is far superior in Poland - just look at the help given by the Urzad Pracy compared to the UK Jobcentre Plus! Heck, the UK Jobcentre Plus even runs job ads for lapdancing clubs - is that what people think is desirable?

You would think. I tried all recourse through administration and of course in true Polish fashion I was blown off, lied to and even blamed. The only other option was to go to court and I was advised by a trustworthy lawyer that the cost would not be worth the return and it would take minimum of 6 months, may not result in any compensation, and generally be a giant pain in the arse. So I opted to leave it rather than spend MORE money on an unsure situation.

well, I don't think that Poland's national interest was served best by people moving abroad.


"his builds up a reputation for you as a people and frankly it's not the greatest. If you want a better international reputation then stop with the bragging and nonsense. The "stupid" reputation of Poles comes from the stubborn unwillingness to do more than the bare minimum or admit fault. If Poles don't know something they will lie or blow it off rather than admit it and find out or fix it....people don't like this.

I can go on for hours with fellow expats about the "Polish way" and we often have each other in stitches because there is so much that is "different" in Poland and it's rarely "better"."- I think above half-rant is hardly fair nor just!


I don't but bad parts exist everywhere, did you heard about an American who had problems with tax institution and he had a plane ?

I mean that your problems in Poland are overwhelming for you because you are not used to deal with them.


Its no fair, and it shouldn't have happened but it did, but it doesn't give anybody right to judge all people of the nation.

Sure some people get defensive when criticism is uttered by a foreigner in a blunt manner but most were just trying to make excuses not due to unwillingness to face it but rather because of embarrassment.

I'm not making any excuses, **** happens and there is nothing I can do about it,.... yet!


well, maybe but still there is a lot of useless and pointless hassle.
There is saying that one should always compare to the best!